Andre Carson's True Colors

LARRY O'CONNOR6 Sep 2011

By now we’ve all heard the reprehensible remarks made by Congressional Black Caucus Whip Andre Carson (D-IN) where he told the audience at a CBC Jobs Fair Town Hall in Miami that Tea Party Congressmen would like to lynch black people. Given the opportunity to revise or retract his remarks, Carson instead stood by “the truth” of his comments.

So now it seems pretty fair to say that Andre Carson is a race-baiting bigot who has brought shame upon the U. S. House of Representatives. But any regular reader of Big Government knows that this is not new information. In fact, Andre Carson’s despicable, divisive slander of August 22nd is just the latest of bogus attacks made by the 2nd term congressman against the Tea Party. Andre Carson is the man who told the mother of all race-baiting lies against the Tea Party: That racial slurs were screamed “fifteen times” at he and Rep. John Lewis (D-GA) in Washington DC on the day before the ObamaCare vote in 2010.

The headlines at the time (as well as Topic #1 on cable news and Sunday talk shows) was “Racist Tea Party Yells ‘N-Word’ at Civil Rights Icon John Lewis”. Andre Carson’s name was hardly mentioned in any of the stories. But a Big Government investigation revealed that it was he, in fact, who gathered Capitol Hill reporters around himself on March 20, 2010 and breathlessly told them what had happened “outside of Cannon (Congressional Office Building)” just moments before. (audio courtesy Kerry Pickett, Washington Times)

By now you know the story become part of Democratic Party lore showing up in talking points as recently as just last week as Alan Colmes mangled the “facts” but still was able to perpetuate the lie on Fox News’ “O’Reilly Factor”. You should also know by now that Andrew Breitbart offered a $100, 000 reward for anyone who can produce video proof o the supposed racial hatred. The only videos uncovered were found by the Big Government staff. They show the exact moment Carson described, “down the steps of Cannon”, from four different angles. Not only were there no slurs heard on any of the videos, but the scene is not at all how Carson described it to Capitol Hill reporters.

Just like Carson’s evil lie that Tea Party would like to see blacks “hanging on a tree”, the claim that protestors screamed the “N-Word” at him on March 20th, 2010 is a myth and should be condemned.

So who is this guy? Who is this second-term congressman prone to tell tall-racist-tales against his political opponents?

Andrew Carson is a convert to Islam, thus making him the second Muslim to be elected to the House of Representative, the first being the equally mendacious Keith Ellison (D-MN). Because of this distinction, he is often trotted out by main stream media outlets as the “go-to” expert on political issues related to the Islamic world.

His congressional seat (representing greater Indianapolis) used to be his grandmother’s. Julia Carson held the seat for ten years until her death. Race-baiting anti-Semite Louis Farrakhan spoke at her funeral. When Carson ran for her open seat he refused to denounce Farrakhan or his hateful record.

Breitbart.tv uncovered an interview with Rep. Carson that was conducted before the infamous day in Washington DC. In it he was asked about the greatest threat to America and without hesitation he answered “racism”. This was a fine bit of foreshadowing to his remarks to reporters on Capitol Hill. After vividly describing the scene where he and Rep. Lewis had to withstand Selma revisited, he then educated the reporters by telling them:

REP. CARSON: I’m from intelligence, and I’ll tell you, one of the largest threats to our internal security…I mean terrorism has an Islamic face, but it really comes from racial supremacist groups. (inaudible) Its the kind of thing we keep a threat assessment on record [for].

PICKET: From groups like this?

REP. CARSON: Oh absolutely.

So let’s review what we’ve learned about Rep. Andre Carson:

He inherited his seat from his grandmother who was close to Louis Farrakhan

He has refused to denounce Farrakhan

He went on record early in his congressional career to say that racism was one of the greatest threats to our country

He told reporters that Tea Party protesters screamed racial slurs at him even though video of the event belies this as well as overwhelming number of eyewitness accounts (including a GOP congressman walking right behind him at the time of the alleged event)

He equated the Tea Party with racial supremacist groups and said they were a bigger threat to our country than Islamic terror

He told a gathering of black voters that Tea Party congressmen would like to lynch them

Many reporters who were questioned about why they took Carson’s word for it that day in March 2010, and ran the story as fact without trying to verify his account said that Carson had always been a quiet unassuming congressman, not prone to over-the-top hyperbole or over-heated rhetoric. In light of Carson’s recent remarks it might be time for these reporters to re-think that assessment, and re-visit the “N-Word” story.